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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Regina Moss is an emotionally distant mother whose daughter Anna is struggling in her freshman year at college. What makes Regina's inability to meaningfully talk to and connect with her daughter so surprising is that Regina is also a psychiatrist. She not only works in a psychiatric hospital but she also spends hours listening to her private clients as they try to work through the things that are weighing on them and to face reality, something Regina seems incapable of doing herself.

At first glance, Regina is a completely trustworthy narrator who is still grieving the tragedy in her past. She and her daughter have a difficult relationship. She is immersed in her professional life almost completely and developing an interest in one of the new, young techs on her ward. But as facts about Regina's life come to light, she has to expand or alter her backstory, peeling back the sanitized and imagined past layer by layer to reveal the truth that still haunts her and drives her present no matter how deeply she's tried to bury it in her subconscious.

This tale of a manipulated truth, slowly revealed only through necessity, showcases a classic unreliable narrator. Separated into three sections: Lunacy, Hysteria, and Bedlam, each section is told in short numbered passages which serve to make each bit feel self-contained although they clearly build on one another. Everything about the book, Regina's life, the revealing truths, her relationship with Anna, and her feelings about everyone in her life past and present, grows incrementally. And as the shifting sands of Regina's story cover over the previous layer, the reader can't help but be caught up in wanting to see past the obfuscation to the uncontestably true core, to finally know the whole story. A fascinating look at the many ways in which we compensate for guilt and grief and living after a major loss and how we lie to ourselves and others, this was a surprisingly riveting novel.

Amazon says this about the book: Five hundred feet underground, Jeanne Marie Laskas asked a coal miner named Smitty, “Do you think it’s weird that people know so little about you?” He replied, “I don’t think people know too much about the way the whole damn country works.”

Hidden America intends to fix that. Like John McPhee and Susan Orlean, Laskas dives deep into her subjects and emerges with character-driven narratives that are gripping, funny, and revelatory. In Hidden America, the stories are about the people who make our lives run every day—and yet we barely think of them.

Laskas spent weeks in an Ohio coal mine and on an Alaskan oil rig; in a Maine migrant labor camp, a Texas beef ranch, the air traffic control tower at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, a California landfill, an Arizona gun shop, the cab of a long-haul truck in Iowa, and the stadium of the Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheerleaders. Cheerleaders? Yes. They, too, are hidden America, and you will be amazed by what Laskas tells you about them: hidden no longer.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

What would you do if you opened the door to find a man you hadn't seen in 14 years standing on your doorstep, a man who disappeared from your sixteen year old life? What if you had loved him with every fiber of your teenaged self? What if the last night you saw him was the night your mother died, was murdered? What if you held yourself responsible for her death, you felt you killed her? How would you respond to this man from the past then? This is the opening premise of Yvvette Edwards' first novel, a novel longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Jinx has spent the past fourteen years blaming herself for her mother's violent death. She is so full of guilt and anger at the situation that she is completely emotionally frozen, unable to connect even to her young son Ben. Her husband Red moved out with Ben when he was just a baby and Jinx hasn't been able to repair the relationship either with Red or with Ben because she is so trapped by her feeling of culpability. So she lives a lonely and unfulfilled life. But when Lemon shows up on her doorstep, he starts to thaw her just by his very presence, forcing her to remember that terrible night and what led up to it.

Inviting him to stay, Jinx is afraid to re-open herself emotionally to Lemon but he gently and insistently takes her into the tragedy of his own life, having just lost his wife and been estranged from his own son for his son's entire life, as he leads her to face the biggest tragedy of her life. Alternately narrated by Jinx and by Lemon, the past comes to life as they finally speak of Jinx's beautiful mother and of Berris, her fiance and lover, the man who murdered her in a fit of jealous rage. Each of them adds layers to the tragedy, sharing from their own perspective, admitting their feelings from the time, exposing what drove them to act the way they did, finally creating a complete and total picture of that night. As Lemon listens and expands on Jinx's understanding of the events leading up to her mother's murder, he cares for her, nurtures her, and cracks open her heart just the tiniest bit, allowing her to finally face all her confused and unhappy feelings, to share the unspeakable, and to let go.

The novel is exquisitely written. It takes place over one weekend although it ranges backwards fourteen years and to the months leading up to the murder. There is a slow uncovering of long, intentionally buried memories and Edwards uses all of the senses to show this blossoming, describing sights and sounds and noises with a startling vividness. And she tackles race, conceptions of beauty, abuse, love, family, and coming of age surprisingly fully all within this relatively short novel. The way that the reverberations of the murder leak into every crevice of Jinx's life and the way that her all-consuming guilt dooms her to be an emotionally distant and confused mother are convincingly shown. While there is certainly no doubt as to the fact of the murder (it is made clear almost from the start that Berris went to prison for it), the way in which the whole truth about the circumstances is revealed is masterfully done, keeping the tension of the story constant and drawing the reader ever forward. Intense, passionate, and brimming with emotion, this is a compelling read.

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

An Age of Madness by David MaineSalvage the Bones by Jesmyn WardThe Absolutist by John BoyneThe Mercury Fountain by Eliza FactorThe Right-Hand Shore by Christopher TilghmanImperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-HillGoodbye for Now by Laurie FrankelThe Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret DillowayThe Receptionist by Janet GrothKeepsake by Kristina RiggleThe Underwater Window by Dan StephensonA Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette EdwardsMore Baths Less Talking by Nick HornbyThe Good Woman by Jane Porter

Just two books after last week's embarrassment of riches but equally appealing to all of those. This past week's mailbox arrival:

Phoebe and the Ghost of Chagall by Jill Koenigsdorf came from Meryl Zegarek PR.An artist who, with the ghost of Chagall, goes on an adventure looking for paintings lost during Chagall's lifetime, this comic novel looks like it will be a great read.

Wright for America by Robin Lamont came from Meryl Zegarek PR.A novel about political differences is very timely right now, especially given the vitriolic nastiness that campaigning seems to inspire so this should be an interesting read.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit 5 Minutes for Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

I used to love going school supply shopping when I was young. I don't love it so much anymore, not because brand spanking new office supplies don't still thrill me somehow (they do) but because with two of my three in high school, the class supply lists are handed to them the first day of school and I have to fight the rest of the hordes for the last remaining supplies that first evening after school. I don't shop on Black Friday but I imagine it's similar; if there's only one package of college ruled notebook paper in the metro area, there's body checking to be the one to get it in your cart. Blech! Not my kind of school supply shopping. So this year I am not playing that game. I bought a lot of the "old standbys" already and the kids will just pull from that pile and what I don't have they can wait to acquire.

But I didn't want to totally forgo the back to school shopping experience. It's an integral part of starting each year, right? So I took my daughter to the bookstore instead. I justified it because there are actual book books on their lists (nevermind that I already own all three of the books they'll be using this year that I know about so far: The Kite Runner, Night, and A Short History of Nearly Everything). Now, if you know me at all, you know I had very little self-restraint while at the bookstore. This is no surprise at all. My daughter, on the other hand, who is usually only slightly restrained, stayed at my elbow as I picked out books that needed to come live with me. I tried to get her to go to the teen section and look for herself and she actually said, "I still have books at home I haven't read yet." I'm pretty sure she's not my kid!!! So, not willing to let this terrible statement stand unchallenged, I dragged her over to the teen fiction and started handing her books to read about. She ended up with a stack worthy of me. And the one book she wasn't 100% certain of, I added to my own pile to help her out. ;-)

For the nosy among you (and if this wasn't my blog, I'd be among the nosy), I ended up bringing home: More Baths Less Talking by Nick Hornby, Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill, Penelope by Rebecca Harrington, Better With You Here by Gwendolyn Zepeda, and Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl (this one is the one we'll share). R. ended up bringing home Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer, The Time Traveling Fashionista on the Titanic by Bianca Turetsky, Pizza Love and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams, and Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle. And yes, I plan to snag a couple of these fun looking books and read them too. I don't think she'll be interested in mine, but you never know. And if there's more school shopping to be done that actually requires elbows to be thrown, I'll have to make another calming visit to my happy place to recover. Maybe they'll even need more actual books. Or not. But a mom can dream.

This week in my reading adventures I relived my swimming years and added an Olympic dream to them, I went along as a woman learned to forgive herself for her mother's death and unthaw her emotions, and I wallowed in the latest collected set of Believer columns about books and reading by Hornby. Where did your reading take you this past week?

Thursday, August 23, 2012

As dramatic openings go, it would be hard to beat hanging the hero before he ever meets the heroine of a romance but that is just what happens in this latest installment of Liz Carlyle's series of books centered around the secret St. James Society. Opening with Rance Welham being paraded out to be publicly hanged for the murder of young Lord Percy Peveril, a murder he maintains he did not commit, this Victorian-set historical romance immediately launches the reader into the driving force in Rance's life and a major factor in delaying the destined romance.

Lady Anisha Stafford and Rance Welham, Earl of Lazonby, meet years after the attempted hanging when Rance is sent to collect Anisha from the ship that she, her two sons, and her younger half-brother have taken from India to England to live with her oldest brother Lord Ruthveyn following the death of both Anisha's father and her husband. They have an immediate awareness of each other and yet a full year passes off the page as the two of them develop a close and treasured friendship. Each is attracted to the other but they are unwilling or unable to act on this attraction. Rance is consumed by finding out the real murderer and clearing his name once and for all and feels he cannot sully Anisha with his reputation or with the sordidness of the quest. Anisha just wants to be seen as a grown woman who is capable of making her own decisions and not be protected and coddled.

In addition to the mystery of who would have had reason to frame Rance, there is a touch of the exotic in this tale as Anisha is bi-racial with a Scots father and an Indian mother. This fact makes it hard for her to be seen as acceptable in the eyes of English society and so her closest friends and confidantes are all members or related to members of the St. James Society, which is a genteel front for an ancient organization of people possessed of second sight and those sworn to protect them. Anisha herself can read palms and has a basic understanding of astrology thanks to her mother. Rance, while more properly a Guardian (or protector), himself has extraordinary insight into people and their emotions. But despite their gifts with others, neither of them can read each other.

As is often the case when sexual tension is high and being denied, they bicker with each other and dig their respective heels in on their decisions no matter what. Rance is tortured both by his inability to keep his hands off Anisha and by the dead ends he finds as he tries to uncover the real murderer so he sinks himself into the dangerous depravity that is absinthe. Anisha, meanwhile, tortures Rance with the threat that she will look elsewhere to fulfill her needs if he's not willing to share her bed. But ultimately they must partner together in all ways to have the life they want to lead.

There are a plethora of secondary characters in this novel and often they are only on the page fleetingly, leaving the reader to wonder at their purpose. Perhaps as this is one in a series, their presence is necessary to prior or future books. Rance as a character spends a lot of time wallowing (in a crystal glass filled with a cloudy green liquid) in his unsuitableness for Anisha and the sordidness of his past rather than actively pursuing a resolution. But the two characters had good chemistry and their scenes together sizzle. As an escapist read, this definitely fit the bill.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

I am an occasional runner. I go through spurts when I am good about getting myself out on the road and putting in miles and other times when I can't motivate myself off the couch. But I have that luxury. Running is never going to substantially change my life, well aside from changing my general fitness level a hair. None of this is the case with the main character in Naomi Benaron's novel Running the Rift winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. He must literally run for his life.

Jean Patrick Nkuba is a young boy Tutsi boy living in Rwanda when the novel opens. He likes to race against his older brother outside their home at the boarding school where their father is a teacher. But tragedy comes early to their family when their father is killed in a car accident. After ethnically motivated bullying, Jean Patrick's mother moves the family to her brother's home sooner than planned and away from the school. Jean Patrick and his siblings know that they will have to work harder and be smarter than their Hutu peers in order to go back to the school on a scholarship and have a chance in life. In Jean Patrick's case, not only is he very smart and driven, he is also a very gifted runner whose talents on the track will ultimately carry his Tutsi family, friends, and neighbors' dreams on his back.

As the ethnic violence escalates, Jean Patrick is somewhat protected by his elite athletic status having qualified for the Olympic trials and been given a falsified Hutu identity card by his coach. Jean Patrick is not only driven to run, it literally carries him above the horror played out all over the country. But it can only save him for so long. As he trains hard and tries to shut out the reality of life for his own ethnic minority, he entrusts his coach with his safety and indeed his very life. Jean Patrick's drive and desire, his training regimen even in the face of greater and tighter restrictions, and the politicizing of sport all wind through the narrative no matter what evils overtake the rest of Rwandan society. And it's on a training run that he catches sight of the captivating Bea and meets her Hutu family who risk their own safety to speak out against the killings, a chance meeting that will forever change the trajectory of his life. As he falls in love with Bea, he thinks that he must decide whether his destiny is with her or in his dream of the Olympic track but in fact, there will be no choice. Instead, he will have to run to escape in order to survive and to eventually bear witness to the atrocities.

Benaron has done a good job showing how neighbor can suddenly turn against neighbor and how hatred can grow and consume everything in its path, leaving no one untouched. It translates the impersonality of numbers (over 800,000 people are estimated to have been killed) into the deeply personal tale of one gifted young man and the family and people he loved, showing what genocide means on a micro-level and allowing the reader to feel a kick to the gut in a way that abstract numbers do not inspire. The rising tension as the book progresses is masterful as Jean Patrick doesn't yet seem to understand he is running the race of his life in trying to become an Olympian before full scale bloodshed breaks out. The politics and history behind the 1994 genocide is well researched and well-presented through the use of secondary characters so that it is always fully integrated into the novel. Jean Patrick himself was a naive character and that was occasionally frustrating given the clear and obvious view of what was coming. Not always an easy read (although much of the graphic violence occurs off the page), this is an important look at evil and the slowness of healing in its wake.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Amazon says this about the book: Loretta Boskovic never dreamed she would end up a single mother with two kids in a dusty Australian country town. She never imagined she’d have to campaign to save the local primary school. She certainly had no idea her best friend would turn out to be the crusty old junk man. All in all, she’s starting to wonder if she took a wrong turn somewhere. If only she could drop the kids at the orphanage and start over...

But now, thanks to her protest letters, the Education Minister is coming to Gunapan, and she has to convince him to change his mind about the school closure. And as if facing down the government isn’t enough, it soon becomes clear that the school isn’t the only local spot in trouble. In the drought stricken bushland on the outskirts of town, a luxury resort development is about to siphon off a newly discovered springwater supply. No one seems to know anything, no one seems to care.

With a dream lover on a Harley unlikely to appear out of nowhere to save the day, Loretta needs to stir the citizens of Gunapan to action. She may be short of money, influence, and a fully functioning car, but she has good friends. Together they can organize chocolate drives, supermarket sausage sizzles, a tour of the abattoir—whatever it takes to hold on to the scrap of world that is home.

A delightful novel for fans of Jennifer Weiner, Fannie Flagg, and Maeve Binchy, The Fine Color of Rust is a wonderful reminder that sometimes it really does take a village—and a healthy dose of humor—to change the world.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I have always loved Jane Austen's books. I thoroughly enjoy modern re-tellings as well as prequels or sequels. I rush out to see movies based on her novels or her life. Compare something to one of Austen's works and I'm almost guaranteed to jump on board. It's pretty safe to say that I am definitely an Austen fan. Amy Elizabeth Smith's All Roads Lead to Austen was already going to capture my attention but throw in the subtitle A Yearlong Journey With Jane and I couldn't read it fast enough.

Smith is an English professor at Pacific University where she has the opporutnity to teach Austen's novels. Faced with the question of what to do during her first development leave year away from the university, Smith decided to travel to six different countries in Latin and South America and read Austen's novels in Spanish with people in each of these unique countries to see if the popularity and perceived universality of these works translated as readily as the words on the page. First Smith had to learn Spanish though, at least enough to discuss the books with native speakers.

After a five week stint in Antigua learning Spanish, Smith set out on her year-long exploration of Austen's appeal for non-English speakers who not only don't share a language with Austen but who also live in far different cultures than that with which Austen was familiar. The six countries she chose were Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. In some of the countries, Smith would have friends, acquaintances, or contacts of some sort who would help her organize her Austen reading groups. In others, she would leave things to chance. She chose to read three different novels, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice, twice each.

Divided into chapters set in each country, Smith does a good job introducing readers to the six different countries and their inhabitants. Part travelogue, part Latin and South American history, part personal memoir/romance, and part literary examination, Smith's story is accessible and entertaining. She took the precaution of taping the book club discussions so that she could accurately transcribe them, especially when her Spanish is stretched a bit. She shares the wonders and problems with traveling so far from home, the culture shock, the fortuitous surprises, and the genuine welcome she receives everywhere she goes. She cheerfully exposes her own gaffes and quirks to the reader as she moves from country to country. Her enthusiasm for each of these different countries and the people she meets in them and the bookstores and the local literature is contagious and engaging. And what she discovers about the universality of Austen's novels will probably not surprise any Janeite. Appealing and fun, Smith's year-long adventure is a wonderful, humorous, and personal read.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Opening with Frank Forrest filming a family movie of his children, Dorothy, Evelyn, Michael, Ruthie and their friend Daniel, the interrupted script, unintended images, and the ultimate abandonment of the film captures the feel of the novel as a whole and sets up this slice of life series of episodic style shorts from the life of the dysfunctional Forrest family. The Forrests move to New Zealand chasing father Frank's dream of acting but he can no more break into theater in Auckland than he could in New York and the family must fall back on his rapidly disappearing trust fund to live. Thus starts this dreamy novel that follows second Forrest daughter Dorothy's life from childhood through her dementia-riddled old age.

The vignette-like chapters each freeze a moment in time as the story progresses and the Forrests age. Parents Frank and Lee are remote and consumed by their own self-centered whims. They haul their children around without reference to the damage they might do them and they never actually see what is going on in the lives of the kids. Although each of the family members is granted time on the page, Dorothy is the focus of the majority of the novel and so the reader spends the most time reading about her ultimately ordinary life and the never realized dreams she still sometimes entertains, including her lifelong love of family friend Daniel.

The writing is kaleidoscopic, filled with shimmeringly beautiful descriptions and imagery but the feel is still somehow still distant and detached. The feel is almost like a collection of photographs overlaid with a wash, like Instagram snaps. From chapter to chapter there are gaps in time that are left to the reader to fill in. Some of the gaps are quite large and some smaller, an uneven teasing thread. The characters, specifically Dorothy and Eve, can never quite overcome their family and their upbringing, remaining emotionally shattered. They cannot connect, drifting untethered in their own lives. And while the effect seems intentional it is still disorienting for the reader who also cannot quite connect with this admittedly gorgeously written but aloof and oft times dispassionate story.

For more information about Emily Perkins and the book visit her webpage. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Running the Rift by Naomi BenaronAn Age of Madness by David MaineSalvage the Bones by Jesmyn WardThe Absolutist by John BoyneThe Mercury Fountain by Eliza FactorThe Right-Hand Shore by Christopher TilghmanImperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-HillGoodbye for Now by Laurie FrankelThe Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret DillowayThe Receptionist by Janet GrothKeepsake by Kristina RiggleThe Bride Wore Pearls by Liz Carlyle

It's a good thing school starts for my kids soon since I keep getting such wonderful looking books landing in my mailbox! I need them to be gone all day so I can have some quality reading time to delve into these beauties. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Mirrored World by Debra Dean came from Harper and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.Another gorgeous book cover that can't help but pull you in, this newest novel by The Madonnas of Leningrad author about the mysterious saint Xenia of St. Petersburg looks like a fantastic read.

The Fine Color of Rust by P.A. O'Reilly came from Washington Square Press.A single mom in a dusty, remote Australian town has to fight to save her children's school and then to save her town from outside exploitation. Love books that show moms finding reserves to do the right thing and make a difference (gives me hope for myself) and this one looks great.

The Good Woman by Jane Porter came from Berkley for a blog tour.After years of being the person everyone else expects, a wife and mother faces the difficult decision about who she wants to be moving forward and whether or not she will risk everything and everyone she holds dear in the pursuit. That this is the first in a new trilogy about sisters just makes it that much more appealing.

A Different Kind of Normal by Cathy Lamb came from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.How do you risk letting children make their own choices and take their own risks? A mother who knows the fleeting nature of life must come to terms with just this in this great looking novel.

The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli came from St. Martin's Press and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.Could you just crawl into this cover? Having loved The Lotus Eaters, I'm very excited to have my hands on this next novel of Soli's about a woman who weathers tragedy and disappointment even as she tries to hold onto the citrus ranch that she loves.

The Underwater Window by Dan Stephenson came from Untreed Reads Publishing and Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity. Cover copyright 2012 Ginny Glass and Untreed Reads Publishing.As a former swimmer myself, I am really looking forward to this novel about two swimmers and best friends who are competing for the same gold medal. Plus, now that the Olympics is over, I can always use a kick of competition and adreneline in my life.

The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam came from Hogarth and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.A novel about a headmaster whose loyalty to family and his lover are tested as the fighting in Vietnam draw ever closer to Saigon, this promises to have elements of so many things I enjoy reading about.

Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck came from New American Library.What is it about Hemingway that has so captured my imagination? I do love reading fictionalized things about periods in certain writers' and artists' lives so this one about a tempting young woman who comes into Hemingway's orbit in Key West is sure to hold my attention.

Lost Antarctica by James McClintock came from Palgrave Macmillan.Antarctica fascinates me and I am really looking forward to this non-fiction read about the hardy yet fragile flora and fauna of the seventh continent and the ways in which we are imperilling it.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit 5 Minutes for Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Western set novels seem to be a growing trend right now. But these new western novels certainly aren't "cowboys and indians" novels. As a matter of fact, they rarely have a cowboy or a Native American in the text. They are, instead, the riveting tales of the folks who went west to settle for a host of good and bad reasons. Anna Keesey's novel Little Century actually does have cowboys (well, hands on a cattle ranch properly never called cowboys) but it is more the tale of eighteen year old Esther Chambers as she moves to the desert of Oregon searching for a way to move forward in her life and the ways in which she is confronted by the terrible, heated tensions of range wars in an open land where water is at a premium and means the difference between life and death, success and bankruptcy.

Esther moves west to her only remaining relative, cattle rancher Pick, and agrees to make a claim on a piece of land that he has long had his eye on. It has a seasonal lake on it over which Pick wants control. He wants to be able to use it to water his cattle and perhaps more importantly to keep the sheepherders away. Although Esther had no idea when she put in her claim, she has stumbled into a bitter and ongoing range war between the local cattle ranchers and the more itinerent sheepherders. The town of Century, Oregon is full of tension between these two factions and it erupts into petty violence periodically, often enough to cause the officials charged with determining where to run the railroad cause for alarm as they warily consider Century for a depot.

Although Esther is really just a place-holder for the Half-a-Mind claim for Pick, she has to fulfill the requirements to hold it herself and she comes to decide that she'll plant crops and do her best on this contested land. As she settles into her new life, she also comes to meet and befriend several of the townsfolk, learning their stories and sharing her own. She becomes intimately tied into the water disputes in this dry and unforgiving land and when she learns to see one of the sheepherders as a person rather than the enemy Pick sees, her whole perspective shifts. When the penultimate violence strikes, she has to weigh family loyalty against the tentative stirrings of love. The escalating violence crescendos when the long-standing range wars put the future of a railroad depot in Century in grave danger. And no one is immune from the fallout of that final battle.

The novel starts out slowly as Esther works out the lay of the land and learns to take the measure of the people around her. But as the story moves forward, it starts to pick up as more characters take shape and are fleshed out. The pacing is a little uneven with the beginning feeling like extended scene building but eventually the plot picks up some and the story gains some legs. Keesey's at her best describing the land, making the desert environment vivid. The characters often seem only to endure in this harsh land and even fleshed out they can be a bit too colorless.

The ideas of justice and rights, both personal and public, pervade the whole of the novel. What starts out as the reader concurring with Esther about which faction is in the right grows and changes, becoming increasingly nuanced as Esther's understanding of the situation, the undercurrents and back room alliances, grows and changes as well. Remaining true to her maturing moral compass, Esther finds the courage to stand firm or to act as necessary as the book progresses. The historical information about the wars fought for water and grazing rights, the towns that rose up out of the dust and then wasted away, and the hardy and hard people who populated these places is interesting and well-handled here. While it was sometimes a slog to get through, over all, this was a decent enough read.

Thanks so much to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

I wasn't sure how much I'd like this book since Ondaatje's The English Patient made me want to poke myself in the eye with a sharp and pointy stick. Either my tastes have changed, I've matured, or this is a very different book because I found myself completely swept up in the language, the unconventional timing and narrative, and the curious adventures of young boys traveling for an extended amount of time on a large ship bound for England from Ceylon.

Narrated by the adult Michael, who traveled alone to England to rejoin his mother at the age of eleven years old, this novel is an unusual combination of thoughtful character sketch and mischievious exploration. Michael quickly teams up with two other boys his age who are also relegated to the "cat's table," the table farthest from the captain's table and the three boys scamper around the ship having capers, learning about their fellow passengers, and just generally being unsupervised boys. The short vignette-like chapters also focus occasionally on the other, adult members of the cat's table and the things that the boys learn about and from them.

There's a dreamlike, muted feel to the shipboard life the boys lead and Ondaatje captures their innocence and curiousity beautifully. The journey narrative is occasionally broken with chapters that give small glimpses into life post-journey for Michael, Cassius, and Ramadhin and which offer brief insights into the future of who these boys became and how this seemingly transitory, in several senses, journey undeniably and permanently shaped each of their adult selves. The writing is rich and meditative and the novel is well worth the read.

Amazon says this about the book: An extraordinary new voice in contemporary woman’s fiction, Courtney Miller Santo makes her magnificent debut with a novel that will delight fans of Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and the works of Kristin Hannah. Set in a house on an olive grove in northern California, The Roots of the Olive Tree is a beautiful, touching story that brings to life five generations of women—including an unforgettable 112 year-old matriarch determined to break all Guinness longevity records—the secrets and lies that divide them and the love that ultimately ties them together.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

As I sit here writing this my two miniature schnauzers are barking their little hearts out defending our house against any and all folks walking down the sidewalk, dogs who might be outside within a tri-state vicinity, and the audacious squirrels who think they can live and play in the trees in our yard. They will eventually tire of this guard dog status and retreat to the couch where they will do what I wish I could do all day long: snuggle down and nap. The life of schnauzers in my house. The last time I walked Daisy on a long walk (Gatsby hadn't joined the family yet), she tore her ACL so she clearly wasn't made for trekking. And that made the idea of a miniature schnauzer who, with owner Tom Ryan, climbs 4000+ foot mountains in New Hampshire all that much more intriguing to me so I definitely could not resist a book about their inspiration and adventures in the wilderness.

Tom Ryan was the owner, editor, writer, chief researcher, and even delivery boy of the newspaper The Undertoad in Newburyport, Mass. His paper was one designed to expose politics, the good, the bad, and the ugly, in this New England town and in the course of writing it, he uncovered some pretty shady doings. But he also made some wonderful friends who believed in his goal of cleaning up the local political scene thereby making Newburyport a better, less contentious place in which all could live together. Unfortunately, as much as he exposed, more underhanded dealings filled in the excavated bits and so the newspaper continued to earn its existence. A paper of the 'Toad's sort certainly doesn't make everyone around happy and Tom Ryan accrued his fair share of enemies. Just when he was at his breaking point, a small, older miniature schnauzer named Maxwell Garrison Gillis entered his life purely by chance. This little dog accompanied him on his daily rounds greeting his friends and acquaintances and finding out the rumors and the truths with which he filled his paper. Despite their unexpected love, Max was older when he arrived in Ryan's life and they had a mere year and a half together before Max died and Ryan was left alone again.

Touched by the love of Max, Ryan decided to get another dog, this time a puppy. And so he started looking for miniature schnauzer puppies on the internet. He found his match in a tiny puppy who, according to his breeder, was "different" and whom she had intended to keep herself. But she let the puppy go and he came to live with Tom Ryan in Newburyport. Atticus M. Finch had arrived. He and Ryan quickly became a family, tightly bonded and almost inseparable. So when Ryan and two of his brothers decided to go for a hike, it was without a second thought that Ryan took Atticus with them. And it was there, on the mountain, despite hard going, and being out of shape that Ryan and Atticus found something precious: they found where they belonged.

After a friend died of a very aggressive cancer, Ryan wanted to make a gesture in her honor so he decided to raise funds to fight cancer by hiking all of New Hampshire's White Mountain four thousand footers in one winter. It was an ambitious project and he and Atticus, while having continued hiking after his afternoon with his brothers, were in no means your typical hikers, plus undertaking the mountains in the winter was decidedly more dangerous than in more temperate seasons. As they hiked, Ryan watched and marveled at the uncomplicated drive of little Atticus, his confidence, his ability to live in the moment, and his perseverance even in the face of freezing temperatures and dangerously gusting winds. He learned to trust his little dog to know when the day or the weather would be too much and he learned from Atticus to take the time to simply sit and experience the mountain tops when conditions were right. And he and Atticus would not attempt the highest mountains just once, they would attempt them again. This time they wanted to climb all the highest mountains not once in a winter but twice, this time to raise money for the MSPCA-Angell that does so much for animals and saved Atticus from terrifying health complications.

Ryan learned a lot while climbing not only about and from Atticus but also came to understand and articulate so much about his own past, his unhappy and strained family relationships, especially with his father, and to experience spiritual growth and serenity on the often deserted trails and summits they hiked. His whole philosophy of life grew and matured, eventually sending his life in a far different direction than he could have ever expected when he founded The Undertoad.

Ryan and Atticus have accomplished amazing things and it was lovely to be able to accompany them via armchair on their journey. They truly have a special relationship and Atticus is certainly a special little schnauzer. But the reiterations that being prepared for the mountains in winter kept them both safe got a little old and seemed to imply that those who were injured or killed were careless, or at least not as careful as Ryan and that's rather unfair, especially as Ryan recounts harry moments he and Atticus faced when conditions changed on them or were not quite as expected or what have you. Also, and as the mother of schnauzers myself I get this instinct because I undoubtedly feel it myself for each of my two, continually reminding the reader of Atticus' one-of-a-kind status and lauding him over and over did get a tad repetitive. And sometimes the looks backward at Ryan's troubled relationship with his father, his childhood, and his disappointments were not as well integrated into the narrative as they could have been. However, the book in general is well written and Atticus is an appealing little dog. Fans of dog stories, nature lovers, and those who want to read about a quiet spiritual journey hastened by the trails and lonely summits of the White Mountains will find much to appreciate here.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Sometimes a book that you are reluctant to read turns out to be a real surprise. Always reading the same type of book gives you a happy sense of familiarity but it doesn't stretch your reading assumptions in any way. Bernice McFadden's Gathering of Waters is definitely a different book than my usual reads and it pushed me in ways that things that are immediately appealing to me don't always do.

Narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi, the town where Emmett Till was murdered, this novel purports to tell the stories of people and place that led up to that terrible, nation changing event and the stories of those left broken in the wake of the tragedy. Opening with an explanation of the concept of animism, the idea that everything in this world is inhabited by souls, some benevolent and others malevolent, which move on to other bodies, animate and inanimate, when their shells die or are destroyed, the novel draws a straight line through characters, material things, and events predicated on this belief. Then introducing the family around whose lives the narrative swirls, the town recedes into the generational story of the Hilson family and starts its march to the tragedy of Emmett Till's short life and on far past it to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina.

This is a quick and compelling read that swirls with questions of inborn goodness and evil and of fate threaded through with a history of racial tension and civil rights. Although the cover blurb focuses on the murder of Emmett Till, the novel is much more expansive than just this single event which, in fact, doesn't occur until quite late in the novel. The narration of the town of Money didn't totally work, not least because allowing Money to continue the tale in Chicago thanks to the potted flower that Tass takes with her was a stretch, although the continued narration of Tass' life up north was certainly necessary to the plot. But over all, this not easily categorized novel was gripping and rich.

Following Atticus by Tom RyanThe Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin HarmelGoodbye for Now by Laurie FrankelThe Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret DillowayThe Receptionist by Janet Groth

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Let the Great World Spin by Colm McCannTriangles by Ellen HopkinsThe Dovekeepers by Alice HoffmanThe Forrests by Emily Perkins

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Gathering of Waters by Bernice McFaddenThe Cat's Table by Michael OndaatjeLittle Century by Anna KeeseyAll Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth SmithRunning the Rift by Naomi BenaronAn Age of Madness by David MaineSalvage the Bones by Jesmyn WardThe Absolutist by John BoyneThe Mercury Fountain by Eliza FactorThe Right-Hand Shore by Christopher TilghmanImperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-HillFollowing Atticus by Tom RyanGoodbye for Now by Laurie FrankelThe Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret DillowayThe Receptionist by Janet Groth

It's been a long, hot, busy, rainy week and only one book found its way to my mailbox. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards came from Amistad and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.Just look at that lush and overblown cover? It looks good enough to wallow in, doesn't it? Coupled with the plot description of a woman trapped in memory and unable to connect meaningfully with her family who is awakened one weekend by an old family friend, this sounds ever so appealing.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit 5 Minutes for Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Earlier this summer I chose Hinnefeld's first novel In Hovering Flight for my summer book club. I was looking forward to another smooth, meditative novel from her with Stranger Here Below and it delivered even if it didn't capture me quite the way that In Hovering Flight did.

Amazing Grace (Maze), the white daughter of a single mom from Appalachia, and Mary Elizabeth (M.E.), the musically gifted only child of a black preacher and his wife, find themselves as roommates at tiny Berea College in Kentucky in 1961. As mismatched as they seem to be, they come to be close friends, burrowing into each others' lives and hearts, becoming family despite their differences. Their individual stories and who they develop into as adults grow not only out of their own experiences but also out of their mothers' pasts and the past of the last Shaker sister in a tiny Shaker community, the quietly contemplative Sister Georgia. Maze's mother Vista has had to struggle mightily to support herself and her daughter in the wake of her husband's abandonment and M.E.'s mother Sarah was forever damaged by terrible, senseless violence and loss in her girlhood leaving her a husk of a person.

The novel bounces back and forth in time, telling the past and present stories of all of these women, each connected through hardship and blood. Their lives are played out against the larger screen of the times, the intolerance and racial tensions and hatreds, the stigma of difference, oppression, and the impulse toward a more natural world. So much of their lives, for all three generations of women, is out of their own control; decisions are made for them to conform to social norms regardless of their own wishes and desires. And yet manage to forge their own connections, nurture the good in each other, and find love and acceptance within themselves and in the greater society.

Each of the chapters are short and the women all have distinct voices so there's never a question of whose story the reader is engaged with at any time. But the jumps in time present a bit more of a problem, especially keeping Maze's and M.E.'s timelines straight. So many different storylines would be fine if they all seemed to be working toward the same end but they were often so disparate it was hard to keep all the threads as the story progressed and then the end just sort of happened. The writing here was lovely and well done though and overall I found this a quiet, reflective read.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

When my husband and I got married, we received congratulatory cards and gifts from family members that my husband didn't recognize. Many of these relatives drew family trees on the inside of the card so we'd know where they were on the branches relative to my husband. It's one thing not to know how you are related to someone but it's another thing entirely to find out that your family tree is completely different than you ever knew, that it, in fact, not only has branches you never knew about but reveals your family's history secrets and a heritage that changes everything. Hope McKenna-Smith, in Kristin Harmel's novel The Sweetness of Forgetting, finds just this.

Hope is a recently divorced single mother running her family's bakery business on Cape Cod and trying to hold onto the remaining two members of her small family. Her daughter Annie, closing in on the surly teen years, is angry about the divorce and life in general and taking it out on Hope. Her grandmother Mamie is in a care facility as she succumbs to Alzheimer's disease, slipping away by degrees. Fearing that the past she's hidden guiltily for so long will be forever buried in her failing mind, Mamie confronts Hope on one of her lucid days, giving her a list of names and requesting that she find out what happened so long ago in Paris to each of the people listed. But Hope, on the verge of losing the family bakery, doesn't see how she can possibly fulfill Mamie's request. Thinking to do some research from home, she only uncovers more questions, ones that she and Annie agree must be pursued. And so, failing bakery or no, she heads to France to uncover her own roots, a journey that takes her from a Holocaust memorial to a mosque and back in time to the fairy tales about true love that Mamie used to tell her.

Told mainly from Hope's perspective, the narrative is also sprinkled with chapters narrated by Mamie. Her chapters show clear signs of her disease, sometimes offering clarity as she wades through memories of her long repressed past and other times showing her confusion in the present. As Hope learns more about her grandmother and an extended family she never knew existed, she also learns about the loss of once in a lifetime love that froze Mamie's heart so long ago, damaging Hope's mother Josephine's ability to love, and causing Hope herself to settle in her life and to cynically question the existence of real, true, and deep love. But this is also a novel of second chances and learning to overcome the damage done by a heart wrapped in ice, of family and the impact of history.

Although the women in this novel lament their inability to love, their actions belie their words. They may not be demonstrative but they certainly love each other deeply. Hope's research into her family and their origins and their fates goes surprisingly easily but some of the historical information about the Holocaust victims and the unlikely people who risked their own lives to save others is fascinating stuff. Hope and Mamie are appealing characters, as is secondary character and potential love interest Gavin. Hope's sadness at losing her vibrant grandmother, at her own perceived failures in life, and at her difficulty parenting Annie is authentic and vivid. The baked goods recipes at the start of every chapter sound delectable and, in many cases, presage the content of the chapter well. With their variety giving hints as to Mamie's escape from Paris and eventually leading Hope to the exact people she needs to speak to in order to piece together more of her grandmother's story, they do work cleverly within the narrative but the easy coincidences can stretch credulity a bit and they allow for a very rushed end to Hope's quest for information. Over all though, this was an engrossing, quick read that offers new insight into the damage that war inflicts on down through the generations and the way that love can survive even the most horrific situations.

Amazon says this about the book: Cascade, Massachusetts, 1935. Desdemona Hart Spaulding, a promising young artist, abandoned her dreams of working in New York City to rescue her father. Two months later he is dead and Dez is stuck in a marriage to reliable but child-hungry Asa Spaulding. Dez also stands to lose her father’s legacy, the Cascade Shakespeare Theater, as the Massachusetts Water Authority decides whether to flood Cascade to create a reservoir.

Amid this turmoil arrives Jacob Solomon, a fellow artist for whom Dez feels an immediate and strong attraction. As their relationship reaches a pivotal moment, a man is found dead and the town accuses Jacob, a Jewish outsider. But the tide turns when Dez’s idea for a series of painted postcards is picked up by The American Sunday Standard and she abruptly finds herself back on the path to independence. New York City and a life with Jacob both beckon, but what will she have to give up along the way?

Monday, August 6, 2012

Two days of driving, I'm finally back home and still wading through all the chores that come after 5 weeks away. Reading and reviewing are not exactly at a premium right now but hopefully will top my list again soon. This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Let the Great World Spin by Colm McCannTriangles by Ellen HopkinsThe Dovekeepers by Alice HoffmanFollowing Atticus by Tom Ryan

Reviews posted this week:

Oops! Not a one.

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Stranger Here Below by Joyce HinnefeldGathering of Waters by Bernice McFaddenThe Cat's Table by Michael OndaatjeLittle Century by Anna KeeseyAll Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth SmithRunning the Rift by Naomi BenaronAn Age of Madness by David MaineSalvage the Bones by Jesmyn WardThe Absolutist by John BoyneThe Mercury Fountain by Eliza FactorThe Right-Hand Shore by Christopher TilghmanImperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill

Home from my vacation and there was quite a generous stack of books waiting for me. Opening those packages beats the tar out of unpacking any day of the week and twice on Sunday. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Black Isle by Sandi Tan came from Grand Central Publishing.I do have a very obvious fondness for books set in East Asia so this novel about a Chinese girl who can see ghosts on Black Isle should capitalize on that interest.

Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill came from Atria.A modern set sort of Pride and Prejudice complete with a reality tv show? Oh my! Be still my beating heart.

Following Atticus by Tom Ryan came from Morrow and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.Inspired by the death of a friend, Ryan decides to climb mountains with his miniature schnauzer at his side to raise money for charity. As the mother of two schnauzers myself, how could I not be interested in this book (although neither of my two couch ornaments would be likely to climb mountains)?

Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway came from Washington Square Press.A young woman who is on the cusp of her whole life lands a job writing an article about the previous winners of a magazine Ten Girls to Watch contest and finds herself a whole load of role models. Sounds totally delectable, doesn't it?

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit 5 Minutes for Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

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About Me

A voracious reader, fledgling runner, and full time kiddie chauffeur.
If anyone out there wants to send me books for review (oh please don't fro me in that briar patch!), you can contact me at whitreidsmama (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you do write me there, put the blog name in the subject line or I'm liable to send the unread message to spam. My book review policy can be found here.